Marionette
by Nihil Asara
Summary: Taylor triggers with a different power with a few nasty side effects.


Standard disclaimers – I own nothing.

Hmm... Little different than my norm, this one could be fun.

**Marionette 1.1:**

It was difficult to move. Joints like the Tinman's, gone too long without oil. Two days absent from school and I felt hungrier than ever, emptier than ever, life fleeing from my body like a reverse Pinocchio. I had made a grievous mistake. I had needed time away from the bullies, needed a break from the constant harassment, but I hadn't realized just how desperate I was for energy. I knew it gave me my powers, but I hadn't realized that I needed it just to move my limbs. What would happen if things continued like this? Would my energy continue to drop until I became a living statue or would I just die? It wasn't a melodramatic statement, it was quite literally becoming hard to breathe, though as of yet I didn't feel particularly short of breath. Still, the terror I had felt as my hand locked up around the clicker back at home was all but spent. I felt... hollow. Perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad thing to drift off for awhile. I'd be better in the morning.

_'No! I have to stay awake!' _I couldn't stop now, not without the risk of never waking up again. I needed to find a parahuman, and quickly. I knew there was at least a few at school, even if I hadn't been able to pinpoint them, but I'd waited too long to take advantage of that particular opportunity. It was night now, and so far I'd been unable to find anyone with the necessary aura to sustain me. Either there were no capes in this area of the Docks or their auras were muffled by sleep. No, there had to be someone. A Ward out patrolling, or a super-powered member of E88. At this point I'd even take Lung. Anything to make me stop feeling like a marionette with cut strings.

I was moving along at a good clip, despite the increasing stiffness of my joints and the slowing of my heart. It was easier, I found, to just focus on moving one limb at a time. The lingering vestiges of my energy fed into my levitation ability, lowering my weight to nearly nothing. My bounces lasted long enough for me to slowly reposition my leg for the next push-off. I still found it interesting that I had to dip into my Earth aspect to levitate. Something to do with gravity and mass, I supposed. With more power I could have sent myself soaring but this was enough for my purposes – besides, I had no energy to spare. As it was, one solid kick from my half-numb leg was enough to send me soaring for a dozen meters before my lingering mass pulled me back towards the ground. A gut feeling led me to kick the street lamp as I passed, sending me hurtling around the corner onto a darkened, run-down street. Battered husks of cars littered the area, some showing bullet holes among other injuries.

Then I felt it, a slight tingle of energy permeating the air. I'd gone higher on my last jump than I expected, so rather than kick off the ground I pushed off a mossy windowsill, aiming myself towards the delicious source of energy further down the street. Only my toes seemed to be working with any dexterity but somehow I managed enough force to go sailing over the length of the street. The street ended in an old abandoned lot, several trucks parked on the dirt with perhaps thirty men gathered in a loose circle inside the ring of trucks. I wasn't sensitive enough to tell which one of them was the source, but at least one of them held the key to my salvation.

As I felt myself dropping I reached out my hand to summon greater control of my levitation power, freezing myself in place a dozen yards above them. I realized a moment that I'd frozen myself all too literally. '_I can't breathe!' _Try as I might I couldn't rally my body to move. My lips parted the barest whisper, then stopped. Two minutes of panic as my consciousness railed against my impotent body later I realized that I did not actually need to breathe. This was definitely a new occurrence. Despite triggering months ago I'd never noticed my body doing anything like this. Minus the freezing cold and loss of consciousness, it was as if I'd been cryogenically frozen. My levitation ability was all that was keeping me from looking like a dead body on the pavement, unable to speak or even blink. At this point I could barely even move the focus of my eyes.

Power was still trickling into me from the nearby parahuman(s) but it wasn't enough. Barely enough to keep me from falling out of the air, I could stay here all night and not get the power I needed to walk home. I needed to get closer.

Did I dare? This outing hadn't been a planned event by any means. Early on, after the horror of the locker had faded, I'd considered becoming a cape. I'd dreamed of how I would bring justice to the streets, maybe even receive a congratulatory medal from my hero, Alexandria. Then I'd realized just how weak my powers were. Admittedly, it was nice to have more than one trick, many parahumans weren't so lucky. Unfortunately, I could only ever use two at a time, and using more than one drained my energy incredibly quickly. Using powers from two unrelated elemental aspects was so costly in terms of energy and concentration as to be nearly impossible. It was depressing, but I my power set was similar to what I imagined a toddler version of Eidolon might have.

More to the point, with my dreams of cape-dom dashed I hadn't ever bothered to make or buy a mask. When I'd left the house tonight in a desperate search for energy after my fingers locked up I hadn't bothered to stop for a disguise, not even so much as a hoodie. Still, it was rather dark. What few lights there were down below weren't focused upwards. As long as I didn't get too close I should be fine.

Cautiously I lowered myself down meter by meter until the energy I was gathering from the air exceeded what I was using to keep myself afloat. No longer feeling like I was slowly becoming an inanimate object, I finally took the time to listen. "We're getting them tonight. I don't care that they're kids. Shoot them, and then when they're on the ground shoot them again to make sure. This ends tonight."

Well, that sounded ominous. If I wasn't still frozen stiff I'd be calling the cops right about now. Well, if I had a cellphone anyways. Concentrating on my opposite hand I briefly flared my telekinesis power (also Earth aspect) to tilt myself to an angle where I could see the speaker more clearly. Even the brief use was enough to eliminate whatever small gain I'd had since arriving here. My skin felt numb all over now. I didn't feel warm or cold, just nothing, nothing at all. '_Wait a moment, is that Lung?'_ It was, and a sizable portion of his gang surrounded him. More frightening than being in ABB territory were the indications that they were packing up to leave. '_No, not yet, please, not yet.'_ How long would I stay frozen if he left now?

From the corner of my unmoving eye was a sight far more horrific than the assorted weaponry down below. My hand was white. I was never the tannest person in town, but even in midwinter I was never this pale. Like white marble, or painted wood, glossy and lifeless and utterly unbending. If I was still capable of breath, I would have screamed my heart out. '_I need to get closer.'_ This wasn't like the slow downwards drift I'd let occur before. My _need_ was too great for that. I let myself fall twelve feet before snapping my levitation back on.

"Eh?"

I gulped. My lack of forethought had caught up to me already. Directly beneath me, Lung was examining a cheap pair of black-rimmed glasses. My glasses. '_I should really start wearing contacts._

End Chapter 1.1

Was Taylor nearsighted or farsighted?


End file.
